The Shocking New #1 Show on Netflix ‘Unlocked: A Jail Experiment’ Is Unlike Anything I’ve Ever Seen Before

Forget Love Is Blind: A new docuseries has taken over the number one spot on Netflix’s top 10 shows list—and it puts a whole new twist on the social experiment genre in a way that I’ve definitely never seen before.

In this gritty documentary titled Unlocked: A Jail Experiment (which just debuted on April 10), an Arkansas sheriff named Eric Higgins grants 46 inmates in the Pulaski County Regional Detention facility the freedom to govern themselves. Over the span of six weeks, the prisoners can roam free without guards and locks on their cells in an effort to prove that they can “act more like people and not criminals,” as stated in the trailer below. 

While participating in a Q&A session on April 10, Sheriff Eric Higgins shared what gave him the bold idea to conduct this social experiment. “I want to humanize people. I want to empower people to have an impact on their culture, environment and community,” he said, according to a THV11. 

Higgins continued, “If you can do that on a micro level, in jail with people you don’t care about or didn’t initially care about, and if you take that with you when you go to the broader community, then maybe you realize that you are empowered, you can have a positive impact on your neighborhood, on your family.”

All eight episodes of Unlocked: A Jail Experiment are available to watch right now on Netflix. 

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